Content rendition generation and control

Abstract

Various aspects of the disclosure are directed to content rendition generation. Sets of disparately-formatted media content are reformatted into corresponding renditions of media content having a common format. The common format includes device-indeterminate ID linking data that links respective portions (e.g., assets or a structural component including the assets) of each rendition with the common format to corresponding portions of the disparately-formatted media content. For each rendition, reformatted assets are generated in which each reformatted is specific to one of a plurality of disparate types of devices, based upon characteristics of the disparate device types. Access to the portions of disparately-formatted media content and/or the assets within the portions of disparately-formatted media content is tracked, based on the linking data.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 reformatting sets of disparately-formatted media content into corresponding renditions of media content having a common format, the common format including device-indeterminate ID linking data that links respective portions of each rendition with the common format to corresponding portions of the disparately-formatted media content, the respective portions being at least one of assets and a structural component of the media content that includes the assets;   for each rendition, generating respective reformatted assets, each reformatted asset being specific to one of a plurality of disparate types of devices, based upon characteristics of the disparate device types; and   tracking access to at least one of the portions of the disparately-formatted media content and the assets within the portions of the disparately-formatted media content, based on the linking data.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating respective reformatted assets includes scaling each of a plurality of assets in a particular rendition in to a scaled version, storing the scaled version of each asset in association with metadata that correlates the scaled version with the asset from which it is scaled, therein providing multiple versions of each asset for access by respective devices having different display or other characteristics for presenting media content. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 reformatting the sets of disparately-formatted media content into corresponding sets of media content having a common format includes reformatting digital magazine content, from each of different magazine sources having disparate digital publication formats, having a format and respective pages upon which text and images are concurrently displayed, into a corresponding set of media content having the common format;   generating the respective reformatted assets of the media content includes generating, for one of the sets of media content having a common format, reformatted assets for a rendition having a different arrangement of pages upon which different portions of the text and images are concurrently displayed, relative to the disparately-formatted media content; and   generating the linking data includes generating linking data that links assets corresponding to at least one of text or an image from a page in the rendition, with a corresponding at least one of the text or the image on a different page in a corresponding set of disparately-formatted media content.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein generating the respective reformatted renditions of the media content includes generating renditions of the media content in which pages in the media content are modified by at least one of reordering pages, removing pages and inserting pages. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the respective reformatted assets of the media content includes, in response to a remote user device request for access to a portion of the media content, reformatting an asset of the media content into a reformatted asset that is specific to at least one of an operating system, a software application for displaying the media content, and a display size of the remote user device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 ,
 wherein tracking the access includes tracking a current asset or portion of the media content accessed at a remote user device, and   further including, in response to a user of the remote user device requesting access to the same asset from a different remote user device:
 generating a new reformatted asset by reformatting an asset in a corresponding one of the sets of disparately-formatted media content according to at least one of an operating system, software application for displaying the media content, and display size of the different remote user device, and 
 delivering the reformatted asset to the different remote user device, based on a most recently accessed asset of the media content as indicated via the tracked current asset. 
   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein tracking access includes:
 tracking access to at least one of the portions or assets at a remote user device by communicating, from the remote user device, data corresponding to the linking data and indicative of at least one of an article, text or images that are displayed on the remote user device, and correlating the at least one of an article, text or images to corresponding text or images in the disparately-formatted media content,   tracking access to a corresponding one of the article, text or images in the disparately-formatted media content by other remote devices using different reformatted assets, and   combining the tracking to provide an indication of access to the corresponding one of the article, text or images by all of the remote devices.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein tracking access includes tracking user interactions with the portions or assets. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the reformatted assets includes generating at least two physical assets for each logical asset pertaining to the rendition, further including providing access to the physical assets by, using a client module at a remote media content access device, selecting one of available reformatted physical assets pertaining to a logical asset to be accessed based on characteristics of the remote media content access device, and communicating the selected reformatted physical assets in response to the selecting. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the linking data includes operating a content recognition engine to automatically match reformatted assets in the renditions with assets in the disparately-formatted media content, generating data that links the matched assets, and storing the assets for each rendition with the generated linking data. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the device-indeterminate ID linking data identifies digital media content including at least one of articles, images, text and rich media content displayed on a user device, independent from the type of device upon which the at least one of images and text is displayed and independent from a page upon which the digital media content is displayed. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the reformatted assets includes generating both navigational data and page layout data for the display of text and/or images for each rendition in association with the assets, and wherein generating the linking data includes generating data that links each page in each rendition to at least one article or page in the set of disparately-formatted media content from which the rendition was generated. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein
 the disparately-formatted media content includes respective sets of media content data having different content editing formats that are exclusive to different software-based processing systems, each of which being operable to process content according to protocols specific to the content editing format, and   reformatting the sets of disparately-formatted media content into corresponding renditions of media content having a common format includes accessing the respective sets according to the protocols specific to the content editing format of the media content set being accessed, and converting the format of the media content set into the common format, all of the converted media content sets being accessible using common protocols corresponding to the common format.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the disparately-formatted media content includes respective sets of media content data employing different page-display formats specifying one or more of text location, image location, video location and audio location on respective pages representing the content, and wherein reformatting the sets of disparately-formatted media content into corresponding renditions having a common format includes modifying the different page-display formats to provide a common page-display format usable on a plurality of devices. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further including mapping portions of the renditions to portions of reformatted media content and corresponding device-indeterminate ID data, therein providing a link between characteristics of disparate renditions that correspond to a common portion of the reformatted media content. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein reformatting the sets of disparately-formatted media content includes generating layout and navigational data for displaying text and/or image content on respective pages, the generated data including one or more of page layout for the display of text and/or images, page location, navigational information, linking information that links the text and/or images to other media content. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein reformatting the sets of disparately-formatted media content includes generating data for reproduction on a device having a display type and/or processing system that is different than another device for which the layout and navigational data was generated, by converting the layout and navigational data for use with the device for which the generated data is configured and using the converted layout and navigational data to generate structural views for the content on the device for which the generated data is configured, which is consistent with structural views of the content on the device for which the layout and navigational data was generated. 
     
     
         18 . An apparatus comprising:
 a content generation circuit configured and arranged to
 access media content from disparate content providers and in disparate formats, 
 reformat accessed media content of disparate formats into a common scalable content format that is different than the disparate formats, and 
 store assets corresponding to an original version of the reformatted media content in association with device-indeterminate metadata that identifies the media content; 
   a content reformatting circuit configured and arranged to
 communicate with a plurality of different types of remote user devices including devices having disparate electronic interface characteristics relating to a format of the media content provided via the device, 
 for each remote device, identify a format type for that device from one of a plurality of format types for different devices, based on communications with the device, 
 for each identified format type, access the stored assets corresponding to the original version of the reformatted media content and generate scaled versions of the assets in a format that complies with the identified format type and that includes metadata identifying the media content, 
   a communication circuit configured and arranged to communicate each respective scaled asset to a remote device for which the scaled asset has been generated, thereby providing access to the media content of disparate formats at disparate remote devices having disparate electronic interface characteristics, using a single rendition for each set of media content.   
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 18 , wherein the content reformatting circuit is configured and arranged to
 generate each scaled asset by linking the scaled asset back to an identifier for assets in an accessed original version of the content, and   in response to a request for sharing or accessing a particular asset at a second remote device having an electronic interface characteristic that relates to a format that is different than a format of available scaled assets,
 identify a stored original version of the reformatted media content via the identifier in the particular asset, 
 generate another scaled asset corresponding to the request, which complies with an identified format type of the second remote device. 
   
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 18 , wherein
 the media content includes a plurality of portions that represent pages within the content in which each page has assets corresponding to items displayed via the page, and   the content reformatting circuit is configured and arranged to generate different assets for different ones of the disparate electronic interface characteristics, with the different assets corresponding to a redefined page format suited to the display characteristics of the respective devices, and each page having an identifier that specifies a portion of a stored original version of the reformatted data that corresponds to the page,   whereby a user reading a page of media content in a first format on a first type of remote device can access articles, pages or assets for that page of media content as included on a different page for a second format and a second different type of remote device, facilitating bookmarking of a page in the media content that the user is accessing on the first type of remote device and subsequent access to bookmarked pages from the second different type of remote device.